Court awards death sentence to man who raped 6-year-old

The 54th CCH special court for children, on Friday, convicted a 36-year-old man of sexually assaulting and murdering a 6-year-old girl in Girinagar and awarded him a death sentence and 10 years of rigorous imprisonment.

The convict Anil Baleghar, a resident of Veerabhadranagar in Girinagar committed the heinous crime on April 20, 2017.

Baleghar spotted the girl playing in front of her grandmother’s house. He lured the girl into his house by offering her snacks and sexually assaulted her. Baleghar then murdered the child, put her body in a trunk and hid it under a cot.

He lived in the same neighbourhood and was even friendly with the victim's family.

When the victim's parents could not trace their child even after a night-long search, they lodged a missing complaint with the Girinagar police the following day.

Baleghar feigned shock and joined the family in the search. He claimed that he did not know about the girl’s whereabouts.

During interrogation, the police found out about the girl’s hidden body in Baleghar’s house under the cot. They recovered the body on the night of April 23, 2017.

The convict is married and even has two children.

He works as a coolie and was an alcoholic.

When Balegar was produced in the court on Friday, he apologised and sought mercy from the court. He told the court that he wanted to reform himself and requested a minimum sentence.

The judge, however, questioned Balegar and remarked that as a father the accused knew of the affection he has for his children and should have thought about that before committing the crime. If such a thought did not even occur to him, then the convict was no longer a human.

The court also expressed that the fact that he is a family man with wife and children yet could commit a rape and murder was intolerable and did not deserve any leniency.

The presence of the child’s body in his house was a vital evidence, and the high court needs to give an approval for his death sentence, the court observed.